John McCain's Lost Bearings

Losing Bearings Today, if we say someone has lost his bearings, he does not know where he is. The saying is often used metaphorically to indicate mental bewilderment.

A ship's position when in sight of land was determined by the intersection of the compass bearings of two objects ashore. If one of the objects was obscured, those aboard would have lost their bearings and the position of the ship would be unknown.

From a list of Salty Sayings, it appears to have been a naval term.

In the strange new world of the 2008 campaign, the discourse has been pretty "meta". I will always mark down this particular edition of "silly season" as the "WTF Campaign", because every thing everybody has said has been picked apart for content regarding potential sexism, racism, classism, etc. And now ageism has been entered into the race, pre-emptively, by John McCain.

What happened: John McCain has made some statements, including a fund-raising letter, that try to paint Barack Obama as being sympathetic to Hamas. As Obama is not, he responded by saying that McCain's use of that kind of depiction was a sign of McCain "losing his bearings" during this campaign.

The reaction of the McCain Campaign (this rolls trippingly off the tongue: "McCampaign"): to get angry.

Mark Salter, one of the advisers, said, "Obama's attack today: He used the words 'losing his bearings' intentionally, a not particularly clever way of raising John McCain's age as an issue. This is typical of the Obama style of campaigning."

"That quote is a not-so-subtle attempt by Obama to insinuate the age issue into the race," another McCain adviser said. " He attacks viciously with subtlety and innuendo. Nobody suggested he supports Hamas. We have said the North American spokesman (for Hamas) has talked about how wonderful it would be if he were president of the United States."

It's a particularly not-clever way of insinuating that McCain is old--because it has nothing to do with age! So why the silliness of the response? Because it has to be about McCain's age. What is actually implied by what Obama said is a good deal worse--and probably true.



What Obama was careful to make clear was that what he disliked about McCain's comments was that McCain has said in he past he did not "run that kind of politics" and that it was the "name-calling" nature of the smear, which actually concerned him. McCain says one thing, then does another. There is more than one kind of "bearing" one can lose. One is physical direction, the other is moral.

In the 2000 GOP primary contest, John McCain boarded the Straight Talk Express. He should have realized at that point, in the world of professional politics, he was putting his honesty right on the line. Politicians are often made to compromise. They say one thing, and then might have to go back on it as situations change. It's a common occurance, but at the time, he was highlighting his positions as being moderate and even "maverick" on occasion. He was wagering that he'd have a larger base, and be able to pick up moderate Republicans and Independents, and even conservative Democrats. Or so my educated guess runs.

Gearge W. Bush, who went in for everything conservative and used campaign gimmicks like those shameful calls in South Carolina regarding McCain's family--beat him.



So, things change. A man can learn. The lesson: sometimes different things do need to be said at different times and to different people. People don't always love a maverick. It isn't easy responding to the needs of everybody in policy--but it can sometimes be easy to say you will. Inevitably, actions and words, or even statements one day versus statements made another day, will differ. So positions might be taken on the War in Iraq, torture, immigration, just about everything, really.

Even the simple question of who he voted for in the 2000 Presidential race has become a little muddled. Given President Bush's current lack of popularity, and the nature of the 2000 primary, you'd think it might not be too heretical to admit he might have written himself in. If he did. Just saying.

What kind of portrait could more honestly be drawn from a comment that McCain has "lost his bearings"?



McCain is not out of touch because he's a senior citizen, although it was nice of his campaign to remind us. He's out of touch because he's become the antithesis of the "Straight Talk" persona he once adopted. He flip-flops, and even panders, if he has to. Which Obama has not said in so many words--but I think I will. I'm not running for anything, after all. I don't really play at politics, I just blog.

Hey, anyone hear who Al Qaeda supports for president?